Working with Norms in Social Work Practice: Introjection, Discipline, and Self-Determination

Abstract

Since its beginnings, social work has emphasized the ways in which environmental factors and internal dynamics influence individuals. I propose that practitioners continue and strengthen this emphasis by exploring the role that norms play in conflicts and choices. Contemporary and longstanding concepts from sociology and psychoanalysis concerning norms can help us explore what we can change in ourselves, what norms might be outside our capacity to influence, and what change can be undertaken through advocacy or another method. In considering norms, I discuss the introjection process, research in sociology, and the role that discipline and self-determination (including external and internal freedom) play in our choices.

KEYWORDS:

• self-determination
• norms
• discipline
• practice
• introjection

Notes

¹Klein developed a theory of “positions,” which have been described as a state of mind in which a person experiences her relationships (Waddell, 2002). The “depressive position” is one in which the subject feels largely ambivalent toward the other. That is, the subject realizes that the good caretaker/mother, who is perceived as bringing comfort, and the bad mother, who is perceived as withholding, are actually the same person or a whole object. Since the child sees the mother as a whole person, the child cannot split the mother or object into a good or bad person. This position also allows for concern or remorse for pain inflicted. The other position is the “paranoid-schizoid position,” which Klein posits as a state that is first experienced in infancy. It is associated with being overwhelmed by feelings of anxiety and persecution. In this mental state the infant experiences or sees the mother as a “part object,” who is a good mother or “part object” and only brings comfort, or the bad mother or part object who only brings despair. The infant thus splits up the object (the mother) into a good or a bad mother.